Friday Poll: Who’s going to be Fiorentina’s next manager?

Because Friday evening is the best time to feel sad, let’s run through the past month of Fiorentina’s coaching history. First, Giuseppe Iachini, as expected, was allowed to walk after his contract expired at year’s end. That was obviously the right choice, but there was still jut a bit of anxiety amongst the fans that Rocco Commisso, who’s previously expressed his (well-earned) appreciation for Beppe’s past exploits, that the ballcap-wearing mister would be back.

Next, there was a brief and intense courtship for former Napoli boss Gennaro Gattuso. The Calabrese connection with Rocco proved decisive, but it wasn’t to last as Rino butted heads with Daniele Pradè, Joe Barone, and pretty much everyone else over the club’s transfer policy, which wasn’t centered around agent Jorge Mendes. 22 days later, Gattuso stepped down, and Fiorentina were left looking for a new coach.

Next it was Vincenzo Italiano. Having just signed an extension with Spezia, the former Hellas Verona midfielder seemed set to stay, but the Viola have been working over the past week to bring him to Tuscany, although various actors have produced conflicting reports over whether or not it’ll actually happen.

In case it doesn’t, the club has now supposedly made contact with Paulo Fonseca (lately of AS Roma), Rafael Benítez (lately of Dalian Pro), Claudio Ranieri (lately of Sampdoria), and probably your favorite great aunt. It’s a chaotic situation and nobody outside of the Viola inner circle (and possibly not inside it either) seems to know what’s going on. In short, Fiorentina are Fiorentina-ing as hard as they’ve ever Fiorentinaed.

Here’s your weekend thread. Stay loose.